‘Happy to be a part of this community’: Justen Glad’s five-month fight to return to RSL

HERRIMAN — Justen Glad knew something wasn’t right.

The Real Salt Lake center back was back on the training pitch after the World Cup break, working his way through an injury that had already kept him out of action, when a ball was played in behind the defense.

Glad turned to chase Victor Olatunji. 

“I was just thinking in my head, like, ‘I can’t sprint right now,'” Glad recalled Monday. “If I go in a game and I get a ball behind and I can’t run properly, like, what’s the point?”

He pulled himself out of training.

Five months, repeated setbacks and medical consultations around the world would pass before Glad returned Saturday, playing the final half-hour of RSL’s 3-0 victory over St. Louis City SC at America First Field.

On Monday, he was a full participant in training, with no ill effects from his return.

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An injury nobody could quite explain

The trouble began May 2 against Portland, when Glad felt tightness in his groin and subbed off after 60 minutes. He missed the next two matches.

An MRI revealed a bone stress reaction in his pelvis.

“They were like, ‘Oh, it’s a bone issue, not a muscle issue,'” Glad explained.

The plan was to manage the discomfort through the final two matches before the World Cup break, then take advantage of the three-week interruption to recover.

He played 90 minutes against Colorado on May 16 and another 90 against Minnesota on May 23.

He wouldn’t appear in another competitive match for RSL until October 24.

“I tried to come back for training, and I tried to play through it a bit,” Glad said. “It was a fine line between continuing to progress without having any setback, versus … not having it inflamed too much. It was a lot of stop-and-go there, touch-and-go.”

“I think it’s been a mystery to almost every doctor on the planet,” RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni said Saturday. “We sent his scans to teams in the Premier League, doctors all over the world, and no one could really put a finger on it as to what the mechanism or what is happening.”

Mastroeni said Glad eventually received medication intended to promote bone healing.

Glad recalled taking another two weeks away from training, including one week completely off his legs. That helped, but with the season slipping away, he faced a dilemma.

Push too hard and risk another setback that could end his season. Take things slowly, and he might run out of season before he was healthy enough to play.

The frustration of standing still

Glad was accustomed to injuries that came with a reasonably predictable recovery timeline. This one offered no such certainty.

“I would come in (every day) and it felt very repetitive,” Glad said Saturday. “They would do the groin test, the squeeze test, and it would feel the exact same every day for weeks on end.”

Glad said the medical staff shared his frustration as treatments failed to produce meaningful improvement.

“For the first month there, any time anyone would ask me how was it, I’d say, ‘Yeah, great,'” Glad said.

After another month without improvement, he began to wonder, “Maybe I won’t play this year.”

Meanwhile, RSL’s promising form before the World Cup break had deteriorated, and injuries were piling up throughout the squad.

“Seeing how the team was struggling and not being able to be a part of that and kind of help with that was tough,” he said.

Away from the training facility, Glad found a rehabilitation partner in George, his shelter dog.

Walking helped stimulate the affected area without excessive stress, and trips to the dog park offered a mental escape.

It was, Glad said, “sort of both physical and mental recovery.”

Finding the way back

Mastroeni recalled Glad completing a difficult workout and returning the following day without the familiar discomfort.

“That was really the light bulb moment where everyone was like, ‘I think we’re onto something here,'” the coach said.

Glad noticed the difference as his workload increased.

“I was pleasantly surprised, like, ‘Oh, I’m not feeling it nearly as much as I did the first time I tried to come back. Maybe we can go a little harder, a little harder.'”

Before Saturday’s match, Glad told Mastroeni he was ready to play 90 minutes if needed. The coach opted for a cautious introduction, sending him on for Philip Quinton with RSL leading 3-0 against 10 men.

Glad joked afterward that he’d spent much of his return “smoking a cigar back there.”

Mastroeni praised his positioning, passing, aerial duels and defensive interventions.

“J’s a gamer,” Mastroeni said. “He doesn’t need a lot of reps.”

For Glad, being able to sprint without worrying about another setback was a considerable relief.

Questions beyond the injury

Conspiracy theorists suggested Glad wasn’t injured at all, claiming RSL was using the injury as a pretext to separate him from underage players because of an ongoing civil lawsuit in which he is named.

But the theory doesn’t square with what was happening at the club’s training facilities.

Throughout the season, Real Monarchs and RSL Academy players regularly joined first-team training, sometimes in considerable numbers as injuries depleted the senior squad. Glad remained a daily presence in Herriman, working in the gym and running alongside the training pitches in full view of reporters. He was also visible to supporters attending open training sessions at America First Field.

Whatever restrictions the theorists concocted, Glad remained at the same facilities where those younger players were training with the first team. None of this was hidden.

Asked Monday about the online whispers, Glad smiled and shook his head.

“That was crazy, for sure,” he said. “But it kind of comes with the gig. It comes with being in the spotlight a little bit.”

“I know everyone here knows me and knows my character,” he said. “So I didn’t think about it too much.”

He acknowledged the frustration of being unable to respond publicly.

“Obviously it’s frustrating to not be able to say my part, say my piece,” Glad said.

Supporters defended him online and continued wearing his jersey to matches, but Glad wasn’t entirely sure what reception awaited him at a Meet the Team event last week.

“You never know what’s gonna happen, but I felt a lot of love,” Glad said.

When Glad entered Saturday’s match, a roar went up around America First Field as supporters rose to cheer his return.

“It made me happy to be a part of this club and happy to be a part of this community,” Glad said, “just knowing that there’s so many people that care about my wellbeing and how I’m feeling.”

RSL has won two straight and gone unbeaten in its last three, giving Mastroeni little impetus to tinker with his lineup. But with road matches at Austin on Wednesday and San Jose on Saturday, the club faces three matches in eight days.

After five months on the sidelines, Glad says he’s ready to contribute whenever his number is called.

“I’m buzzing to be back,” Glad said, “and just back with the boys and doing what I love to do.”